What ACR ("Live Plus") is, and how to turn it off
Automatic content recognition (ACR) is a smart-TV feature that identifies what's on screen. Manufacturers document it in their own settings and agreements, and academic researchers have measured how it works. This page covers how it works, what LG says the data is used for, and what turning it off changes.
The details below are LG-specific. Samsung runs the same kind of feature under the name "Viewing Information Services." Vizio's version is called "Viewing Data," and Vizio's current privacy policy describes it as opt-in rather than on by default. See each model's own page for what's confirmed about it.
How the TV recognises what's on screen
Researchers at UC Davis, University College London, and Universidad Carlos III de Madrid measured this directly and published it at the 2024 ACM Internet Measurement Conference. Their finding: smart TVs "captured snapshots of audio or video as often as every 10 milliseconds, batched them and used an algorithm to generate a 'fingerprint'" — a compressed signature, not a stored recording — which is then "sent to a company server and matched against a database of all the content available through the TV service" to identify what's on screen.
LG's own US Smart TV Privacy Policy (May 2026) is specific about the sound this uses: the ACR software "identifies content by continuously analyzing audio signals it receives directly from the soundboard integrated with your Smart Media Product’s speakers; it does not receive any information directly from the microphone on your Smart Media Product or your remote(s)." So Live Plus works from what the TV is already playing through its own speakers, not from a microphone. Whether a given model has a microphone at all is a separate question, answered on that model's own page.
What it can identify
The same research found the fingerprinting "successfully tracked content from a laptop or gaming console connected by HDMI cable", so it isn't limited to the TV's own apps. In a statement on 12 September 2026, LG said its ACR covers "Live TV, HDMI-connected devices, and LG Channels", and does not run inside third-party apps such as Netflix or YouTube.
What LG says it's for
In the same statement, LG says Viewing Information may be shared with LG Ad Solutions, LG's advertising business, to group viewers for advertising, and that ads chosen for you need a separate consent. Pocket-lint's guide (below) also describes it as feeding content recommendations.
Is it on by default?
LG's 12 September 2026 statement says ACR is "turned off by default" and only runs once you accept the Viewing Information Agreement. Earlier, Pocket-lint (December 2025) reported that Live Plus was enabled by default on its reviewer's set. Defaults can differ by model year, region and software version, so check the setting on your own TV.
Separate agreements, separate settings
The Viewing Information Agreement isn't the only one. LG publishes its optional agreements separately on its US and UK websites: viewing information (ACR), voice information, advertising chosen for you, and marketing messages, plus a Data Partners Agreement in the UK. The US advertising agreement covers ads on the TV and on "other digital devices that share the same IP address", meaning other devices on your home internet connection.
Each one is optional and can be unticked on its own. Declining the Viewing Information Agreement doesn't decline the others, so check each of them. See LG TV User Agreements for what each one does and where to find them.
What turning it off changes
Live Plus has a settings toggle — see your model's page for the exact menu path where we've verified one. The IMC 2024 study found that opting out in the TV's settings stopped traffic to the ACR servers on the LG and Samsung sets it tested. We haven't run our own network tests, so this site relies on that study and on LG's own documentation. For other brands, see the settings guides by brand.
For Fire TV Stick, Roku players, Google TV Streamer and Apple TV, see what each maker says about ACR on streaming sticks and boxes.